//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Confusion and Wormholes // Story: Kerbal(and Pony) Space Program // by TheDisparkFictions //------------------------------// The Kerbal Space Center: Mission Control Facility Gene Kerman paces as he waits. “Where is he?” asks Gene. He looks at his watch. 9:45. “He was supposed to be here 45 minutes ago!” Gene notices the clock on the wall and decides to watch it. He then notices that the clock reads 8:59. “Oh.” The door opens and a weird cat-like thing steps into the room. Gene sizes him up. He was about 2 meters high, twice Gene's height, and was a grey tabby cat that for some reason walks on his two back paws. It was almost like a really tall kerbal put on a cat suit. Gene didn't dwell on it for too long. Not the weirdest thing that can happen here. “Um, is this the right room? I expected computers and screen showing the orbit path, not a room with two chairs. Though they do look comfortable, so you get that,” the humanoid cat says. “This is just where I will sit with contractors to deals. We are just here to meet up for your tour and to get the program started,” Gene answers back. "Ok then. So my name is IRKittyz. You name is...?" asks "Gene Kerman. So IRKittyz Kerman, you ready for the tour?" “It's just IRKittyz. But it can be a mouth full to say, you can just call me Kittyz. And yes, I'm ready for the tour,” Kittyz says. “So where do we go first?” *** “Oh my Celestia, why has Dispark not taken us on an adventure! I thought he said that we would be protecting universes, NOT sitting around all day!” complains Rainbow Dash. “Wait, the FWP thing WASN'T a one time deal?” asks Pinkie. “Of course it isn't! If is was, I would no longer have any reason not to buck him in the face until he let's me go home!” responds Dash. “Um…” starts Derpy. “Why would you do that? He seems like a nice colt,” asks Pinkie. “SEEMS is the important word here, Pinkie,” responds Dash. "Girls!" shouts Derpy in medium(ish) volume. "What?" Pinkie and Dash both ask at the same time. “Does anypony know what a kerbal is?” asks Derpy. *** The Kerbal Space Center: Outside VAB “And this is the Vehicle Assembly Building or VAB,” explains Gene with his arms out showing off the big rectangular building. Kittyz looks impressed. “That is one giant building. We should be able to make some pretty big rockets in there. Let's see what it is like from the inside!” Gene leads Kittyz inside through a side door. The first thing he sees is a table with touch screens the size of a tablet, each near the location of each of the chairs. It was rectangular with a seat at the front and three seats on each of the long sides. “I'm guessing this is where I plan stuff then tell the engineers what to buy and how to put it together,” Kittyz reasons. Gene looks impressed. “You are correct. That concludes our tour. If you need me, I'll be in the my office at the Mission Control Facility. But before I go, I have four available contracts for you. They are all from the Kerbin World-Firsts Record-Keeping Society. They want you to launch a rocket in one contract, get to 5000 ft in another, get into space on the third, and the last one is getting into orbit. Which ones are you going to accept?” “Um, what do we get in return? Or fail?” “If you accept a mission you get money. If you complete it, you get more money, reputation, and sometimes science. If you fail or don't complete the mission by the time limit, you lose more money than you had got in the first place.” “Accept them all. Shouldn't be too hard. We should be able to complete those in like two launches.” *** “Let me guess!" Pinkie shouts. "Is it a type of cake? Or is it a chair? No wait, it's a-” “A green alien race in a space-age that all have the last name Kerman,” interrupts Dispark. “He's good,” responses Pinkie. “Anyways, it appears our bubble in the fourth wall has bumped a little too close to a gaming universe along with a few MLP universes. That is why Derpy here can see its story. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the kind of bubble I created around here can sometime mend with a universe for a time and create a- *** Kittyz hears a small rip sound above him. “Gene, do you hear that?” Gene listens closely, but hears nothing. “I don't hear anything, but don't cats have a different range of hearing than kerbals?” “I think so. We'll have to check, but for right now, we might want to back away.” “Why?” asks Gene just as a hole appeared above him. *** -wormhole,” completes Dispark. Gummy walks in the room. “Ar it I, or ir this rep sand oter thy?” (Translation: Is it me, or is there a rip sound over there?) “What did Gummy just say? I can't understand a word he said!” asks Rainbow Dash “Are you deaf? I found it quite clear what he said. He told us he heard a rip sound. And if I'm right, that means you might want to hold on to something,” advices Dispark as a weird hole appears behind him. It was like looking through a ceiling to watch someone by looking at wall. It was extremely disorienting, not that the ponies noticed seeing as they were focused on not getting sucked into a wormhole. But their acts were in vain as one by one they got sucked in. Dispark was first in as he didn't have time to prepare as it caught him by surprise. Then Dash because she had tried(and failed) to fly away from it. Then Derpy because she thought she saw muffins on the other side of the wormhole. Then Pinkie because everypony else was doing it and Gummy followed. *** “Gene!” shouts Kittyz as he jumps across to push him away from the exit of the wormhole. Just in time too, as a green creature with black hair and a black tail along with weird wings falls down right on the spot Gene was. Kittyz approaches the creature carefully, not knowing if it was friend or foe. He soon realizes the creature is dazed after the crash landing it took. He gets closer inspecting it. He looks for claws, sharp teeth, spikes, and other dangerous things. Just as the creature starts to focus again, other creature falls down that was exactly the same other than being blue and having rainbow hair and a rainbow tail. Kittyz jumps back instinctively to avoid getting hit. The blue creature seems to shake off the landing more easily and is only dazed for a few seconds. “Where am I? Who are you? What are you?” it asks Kittyz as it walks toward him. A grey creature falls down shouting, “MUFFINS!!!!” When it lands, it doesn't even get dazed and runs around shouting, “Where are the muffins?!” The green one starts to get up again, but a pink one with no wings lands on top of it, dazing it again. The pink one says, “That was fun! Can we do it again?” A small green alligator lands on top of the green creature and follows the pink one. The green creature finally starts to get up. PoV Change (3rd person Pony) “Just my luck! I get used as a landing pad, not once, not twice, but FOUR times, plus my own crash landing. At least I know a tiny bit about this place!” complains Dispark. The kerbal looks right at Dispark. “Why don't you look at my luck! If it weren't for old IRKittyz over there-” He points to the cat, “-I would used as a landing pad FIVE times!” Dash flies up to the kerbal and shouts, “Who are you, what are you, where are we, why did you bring us here!” The kerbal looks offended. “Bring YOU here?! Why would I bring you here? And if I did, I wouldn't have almost gotten pancaked!” “WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP SO WE CAN WORK THIS OUT?!” IRKittyz and Dispark both yell at the same time. Dispark marches right up to Dash and shouts, “Didn't I just tell you a minute ago that a wormhole might form, not from that thing over there-” Dispark points at the kerbal while he shouts Hey! , “-but by the bonding of our bubble and this universe! But you still walk right up to this kerbal, who clearly has no idea what is going on, and blame it on him! Really?” The kerbal shouts, “I have a name you know! It's Gene!” “Tell me how I'm supposed to know it? I just crash landed in a universe I only know a tiny bit about and you think I should know your name? Also it was extremely lucky that you saved from being pancaked so your argument is invalid against mine in who is more unlucky debate,” responses an annoyed Dispark. IRKittyz clearly sees a fight about to happen so he pushes Dispark, Dash, and Gene away from each other and yells, “Everyone shut up!!” Everypony(plus Gene and Gummy) looks at him and becomes quiet. “Thank you. Now-” IRKittyz faces Dispark, “-What are you exactly? I've never seen anything like you.” Dispark thinks for a second before saying, “Not really important, but sorry for interrupting whatever you were doing.” He presses a button on his hoof band. “Come on, lets see if I can't bring us back.” A wormhole opens to front of him as he tries to enter it, but is pushed away as it is one way from Equestria to Kerbin. Meanwhile in Equestria... Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight are walking through Ponyville's park. “I sure miss Dash and Pinkie,” says Fluttershy. Twilight signs. She has been over this a million times, and is getting tired of it. “That unicorn told us that Derpy, Rainbow, and Pinkie would be gone awhile. Besides, I'm sure they'll be back soon.” “But it has only been 4 days and but yet I still miss them!” counters Rarity. AJ puts her two bits in. “Ah am with Twilight on this one. Ah'm sure y'all get to see them soon.” At that moment, a wormhole opens behind them and sucks them in. Back at the KSC... Twilight, AJ, Fluttershy, and Rarity slam into Dispark after getting shot out the other end of the wormhole. “Dammit!” yells Dispark being ticked off that he got slammed into NINE times in 5 minutes. “That didn't work at all, but yet it made things worse by giving me 4 more ponies to deal with!” IRKittyz raised an eyebrow(yes, cats have those). “Ponies you say? What game are you from?” Dispark looked surprised and then made a cutting motion with his hoof near his neck and shook his head. “You mean universe, right?” He hoped IRKittyz would get the message. IRKittyz eyes widened in understanding as he clearly got the message. “Yea, that's what I meant. Totally what I meant! But seriously, what is your name?” “My name is Dispark, which means different in Latin and is a play on words on the-” “Shut up! Nopony wants to hear why your name is Dispark!” yells Dash. Dispark gives her a glare, then goes back to IRKittyz and says, “Why don't me and you continue this in another room where I don't have to deal with trying to organize this madness.” Kittyz rolls his eyes. “Alright. Gene, since you are a contractor and thus are used to working with other kerbals, I am putting you in charge of informing our guests of what the KSP is.” Gene's eyes widen in surprise. “Wait, what?!” “Also get them refreshments, a place to sit, and different types of plants,” continues IRKittyz. “Hold on a second! Why do I have to do all this?” “Because I told you to and like I said before, you are a contractor so you are used to doing this kind of stuff,” IRKittyz responds flatly. “Fine, but you have to clean up after them!” “Whatever you say,” answers IRKittyz as he walks away with Dispark. Gene looks satisfied for a second before he realizes that IRKittyz didn’t say yes in anyway. “Wait! You ARE going to clean up after them, RIGHT?” But IRKittyz doesn’t respond and just keeps walking. Gene calls out to them but gets no answer. Just as IRKittyz and Dispark leave, 8 kerbals run in. Gene signs. This confusion will take awhile to sort out.